Brian LeBouf is happy the so-called Move Over law helps protect law enforcement and other emergency workers in the breakdown lane. But he thinks the law, if extended to civilian vehicles, might have saved his son's life.

The law, enacted in 2009, requires motorists approaching a stationary public safety vehicle, and roadside emergency and maintenance vehicles with flashing lights on to move away to the adjacent lane if it is safe to do so. If not, motorists are required to slow down. Violators can be fined $100.

Mr. LeBouf's 32-year-old son, Chad LeBouf of Leominster, a nurse, was struck and killed last January while changing a tire on his pickup truck in the breakdown lane of Interstate 190 in Holden. The driver of the vehicle that hit him, Lynn Emmons, 43, of Athol, has been charged with motor vehicle homicide by negligent driving, marked lanes violation and improper driving of a motor vehicle. He is schedule to go to trial in Fitchburg District Court Feb 26.

Mr. LeBouf and others who have had a family member injured or killed while their vehicle was stopped in the breakdown lane say the law should also include civilian vehicles with hazard lights on.

“If they had something like this my son would still be alive today,” Mr. LeBouf, of Leominster, said adamantly. “This happens all the time. It's just common sense to slow down and switch lanes.

The Move Over law, which all 50 states now have a version of, was a response to hundreds of state police and other law enforcement being injured or killed while they had a vehicle stopped in the breakdown lane.

According to the International Association of Chiefs of Police, an average of one police officer has been struck and killed each month during the last 15 years. Sixty percent were directing traffic or assisting a motorist. Forty percent were conducting a traffic stop or at a roadblock. Tow truck drivers average one death every six days.

More than 10,000 citations for breakdown lane violations have been issued since the law went into effect in Massachusetts, according to the state Registry of Motor Vehicle's Merit Rating Board. But neither representatives of the registry nor the state court system could readily say how many of the citations were for the Move Over law, or the disposition of the citations.

State Sen. James Timilty, D-Walpole, who was co-chairman of the Public Safety Committee in 2009 and still is, sponsored the Move Over law. He said the hope was the law would help change the behavior of motorists and encourage them to give emergency vehicles and personnel room when they're on the side of the road.

But giving any vehicle on the side of the road more room is the spirit of the law, he said. When a person has a disabled vehicle, the safest way to go is to stand behind the guardrail and wait for an emergency vehicle to provide them flashing lights to alert motorists, he stressed.

Mr. Timilty said no one offered an amendment at the time to include civilian vehicles with activated hazard lights. He said he would support a bill to cover this.

“I'd vote for it,” he said. “I'm quite certain you'll have somebody from the Worcester area to file that. If it came to the Public Safety Committee, it would be very receptive.”

State Rep. Harold P. Naughton Jr., D-Clinton, said he plans to file such a bill by Friday, the deadline for legislators to file bills for this session. Mr. Naughton, a former assistant Worcester district attorney, and co-chairman of the Public Safety Committee, said he made the decision after reading a recent column in the Telegram & Gazette about a Whitinsville mechanic who was killed while standing in the breakdown lane after repairing a tractor-trailer.

“I said to my staff that we should look at filing a bill to extend it to civilian vehicles with hazard lights on in the breakdown lane,” Mr. Naughton said.

He said the bill will be enough to start discussions while his office begins gathering information to determine if the number of rear-end crashes have decreased since the law was enacted.

“Common sense would tell you yes they have. And common sense would probably tell you it's a good idea to extend it to civilian vehicles,” Mr. Naughton said.

Wayne Sampson, director of the Grafton-based Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association, said that agency would also support including civilian vehicles with hazard lights in the law.

“We would absolutely support changing the law to require motorists to move over for any vehicle in the breakdown lane, if there was any indication the vehicle might be occupied or there were people nearby. That would make a lot of sense to us,” Mr. Sampson said.

He said that he would also support increasing the $100 penalty. Most states have fines of up to $500. Some also have jail sentences. For instance, Arkansas' law, implemented in 2003, includes a fine of up to $500, 90 days in jail, seven days of community service and 90 days driver's license suspension.

Richard J. Ashton, project manager for highway safety, for the International Association of Chiefs of Police, said more public education about the law is needed. Seventy-one percent of Americans have not heard of Move Over laws, according to a poll by the National Safety Commission.

Massachusetts Department of Transportation spokesman Michael Verseckes said the state does not have a budget to purchase advertising to promote the law. However, it is among various public safety messages in the overhead and portable variable message boards on major roadways throughout the state, he said.

State Sen. Stephen M. Brewer, D-Barre, said an expansion of the law would be something he would review and consider supporting if it comes before the Senate.

Move Over laws vary from state to state. Some include all emergency workers, not just police. Some specifically list the required reduction in speed. Others do not.

“If you only drive in Massachusetts, you probably don't have any problems. But it's difficult when you go to different states where the law is different. You don't know what to comply with,” he said. “I think in retrospect, the law would have been more effective if some agency, whether the IACP or the National Highway Safety had recommended common provisions in the laws of all 50 states.”